Training Service Dogs At Work!

I have a friend (who has a friend) who works at HP and is currently training a guide dog for the blind in his office. I just thought that was so cool! How would you feel about having a guide dog in training in your office? Have you had experience with this? What is it like? How do people react?

I'm also trying to collect company policies relating to this topic, so if you happen to have access to a policy that you could share, I would be grateful. I hope to train a service dog sometime in the future and this information would be helpful.

I understand the need to train service dogs, but there are people with allergies to animal dander and I believe dogs do not belong in the workplace as a result.

I'm sure that can be accommodated. The person training the service dog could sit at a distance from the allergy-sufferer.

Would you expect a disabled person who depends on a guide dog to be denied a job at your company??

Allergy to dogs is not all that common-- allergy to cats is much more common. I think it would be sad to ban all people who depend on, or are training, guide dogs to accommodate the relatively small number of people who are allergic or who just don't like dogs.

Interests:Sole proprietor: Tailored Resume Services
Volunteer: Court Appointed Special Advocate for a child in the foster care system

Posted 20 June 2012 - 07:50 AM

It is even less common for people to be soooo allergic to dander that they'd have reactions merely because they're several yards or more from the "offending" animals. Dander can build up in carpets and flooring, making someone who is allergic suffer; however, most work environments sweep, wash, and/or vacuum floors nightly, preventing or minimizing dander from building up. Employers should make accommodations if needed to keep the allergic person and the animal a good distance from one another.

As far as distraction goes, service dogs do not make a distraction of themselves. They are working animals and they stay by their owners' sides to do their job. They wear vests that indicate they are working dogs and are not to be petted (http://www.things4yo...scue style vest ). Initially having a dog on the premises is novel and people may look, but they get used to the animal's presence and go about their business.

Service animals enable people with a variety of disabilities to become or continue being productive, taxpaying citizens instead of tax-drainers.

Job Search Consultant
Tailored Resume Services
(916) 984-0855

Volunteer, Court Appointed Special Advocate for Sacramento CASA * I Am for the Child
Making a Difference in the Life of Abused and Neglected Children in Foster Carehttp://www.sacramentocasa.org/

I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do. ~ Edward Everett Hale

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." ~ Anne Frank

I understand the need to train service dogs, but there are people with allergies to animal dander and I believe dogs do not belong in the workplace as a result.

Lots of people are also allergic to grass and trees and flowers, but we allow landscaping at most workplaces. It's tough to be allergic, but it's something the person with the affliction needs to learn to deal with.

The Special Ed class at our school has a service dog in training. Boy, is that dog well-behaved. Even though young, it quietly heels at the teacher's side unless she makes clear that children can come over and pet it. I'm sure you can imagine how much joy and inspiration the dog brings to children in that classroom--in fact, the whole school seems to love the dog.

I agree. And no matter what the trainer says, it will be a distraction in the workplace.

I expected this kind of answer from you. I remember the post you made a year or 2 back when you gleefully recounted watching your cat slowly rip to death a bird and how funny you thought it was. A very slow painful death to the bird and you could have put it out of it's misery, but you thought it was great entertainment. I wonder if this was the cat that you never got spayed ( totally irresponsible) who-OOPS of course wound up getting pregnant and you thought it was awesome cus your kids would learn where baby kitties come from. God knows the kids couldn't learn about the birthing process on a television show, or video Seriously questioning your judgement !Obviously NOT an animal person.

I expected this kind of answer from you. I remember the post you made a year or 2 back when you gleefully recounted watching your cat slowly rip to death a bird and how funny you thought it was. A very slow painful death to the bird and you could have put it out of it's misery, but you thought it was great entertainment. I wonder if this was the cat that you never got spayed ( totally irresponsible) who-OOPS of course wound up getting pregnant and you thought it was awesome cus your kids would learn where baby kitties come from. God knows the kids couldn't learn about the birthing process on a television show, or video Seriously questioning your judgement !Obviously NOT an animal person.

Try to think back to 2007-2008 when BOTH you and Andrea were online. Before you got called out on your BS and got upset and left...the first time.In fact I believe there was one or two members online here that adopted one or two of the kittens.

Try to think back to 2007-2008 when BOTH you and Andrea were online. Before you got called out on your BS and got upset and left...the first time.In fact I believe there was one or two members online here that adopted one or two of the kittens.

It was Andreas deal not mine. Not my cat or my pet.

Your memory is pretty bad too, because I never got called out for BS. I left for other reasons.

And what I don't understand is why you and a few others are so obsessed with everything I have to say on here. Seriously, it's time to get a life. Worry about you. Not me.